Due to his wife and other terrible marital problems, Kevin O’Connell sorrowfully announced his retirement unexpectedly, and all his team players broke down in tears, but…

Due to his wife and other terrible marital problems, Kevin O’Connell sorrowfully announced his retirement unexpectedly, and all his team players broke down in tears, but…

All of Kevin O’Connell’s teammates sobbed as he unexpectedly announced his retirement due to his wife and other horrible marital issues.

According to TruMedia, NFL teams have attempted the play 175 times this season when faced with a third- or fourth-and-1. Eighty percent of the time, it has been effective.

Before Saturday afternoon, the Minnesota Vikings had attempted quarterback sneaks on third- or fourth-and-1 eight times this season. They outperformed the league average with a conversion rate of 87.5 percent.

Coach Kevin O’Connell of the Vikings stated on Monday, “We’ve been pretty successful with the sneak play and pretty successful in those short-yardage situations this year.”

The Cincinnati Bengals’ victory on Saturday remains painful despite the statistics. Particularly considering Minnesota’s last two offensive performances in extra time.

If you don’t finish it right away, it means nothing at all, according to O’Connell. “It’s on me, of course.”

A reasonable opinion. And the appropriate one for an NFL head coach. But this outcome does bring up a topic of discussion that has gained a lot of attention: how many of the Vikings’ recent losses are actually O’Connell’s fault?
The fact that this is even a question shows how far this Vikings squad has come, despite their flaws from the start.

Let’s review the team’s preseason projections quickly. An optimistic outlook emerged when one took into account the difficult schedule, the addition of defensive coordinator Brian Flores, and a more seasoned offense under O’Connell: this Vikings team should be better than last year’s, but the record might not display it.

The brass of Minnesota did not give up on the elderly veterans. It didn’t look back at its 13-4 record from 2022, which included 11 victories by a single point, and conclude that all it needed was some seasoning to get better. Rather, the Vikings stuck to their “competitive rebuild” roster-building strategy, which has always focused on 2024 and beyond, but they also trusted in youth and shuffled the deck. It seemed reasonable that the Vikings might contend for the NFC North championship while still having a strong postseason chance.

Then, NFL wide receiver Justin Jefferson had a hamstring strain. The Vikings were 1-4 at the time. Quarterback Kirk Cousins tore his Achilles two weeks later. The two best players on the team, perhaps, would not be there. Expectations and aspirations for the Green Bay locker room after the win were a sad sight, showing how badly the season had gone.

Do postseason divisional games matter? Getting into the postseason? Before Josh Dobbs transformed into NFL Street’s “gamebreaker” mode in Atlanta, these seemed like pipe dreams. The team’s hopes were restored by victories against the Atlanta Falcons and New Orleans Saints, but the team’s erratic performance in the subsequent three games has caused some to become fixated on O’Connell’s late-game decisions.

“There was a reason behind what we were trying to get done (against the Bengals) that had had some effectiveness earlier in the game,” O’Connell stated succinctly once more on Monday.

Indeed, the Vikings called a tempo during a third-and-one in the opening quarter. Nick Mullens, the quarterback, was in position under center Garrett Bradbury; he established himself, and the Vikings stuck with their 11-man lineup (one tight end, one running back, and three receivers) to prevent the Bengals from using their goal-line package.

After taking the snap, Mullens raced forward to the line of scrimmage, only to be shoved from behind by running back Ty Chandler. What was the outcome? first defeat.

Because of the play’s success this season and earlier in the game against the same Bengals players, O’Connell believed it may be successful once more. Thus, receiver Brandon Powell gestured into the backfield behind Mullens on third-and-short, and the latter forced Powell to move forward. He didn’t get very far.

On Monday, O’Connell said he saw the official close to the Vikings sideline gesture for a first down, at which point he started organizing the following play among plays. The ball was then deemed short of the line to gain by the referee on the distant side of the field.

O’Connell was informed by the assistant coaches seated upstairs that Mullens might have reached the first-down marker on a certain replay. In order to provide officials with additional time to analyze the play, Flores proposed the idea of requesting a timeout. Since simultaneously controlling the game and play calling is a difficult task, O’Connell also uses Ryan Cordell as a coordinator for game management, who communicates in real time. In the end, they informed him that the play had been examined by the booth, which verified its briefness.

O’Connell stated on Monday, “We wanted to hear the word ‘confirmed,'” which meant they had seen what they had to verify, examining every possible angle, that we did not, in fact, receive a first down.

A barrage of inquiries ensued from the second unsuccessful sneak attempt on fourth down, in which Powell once again did the pushing from behind. On Monday, O’Connell revealed that the staff of the Vikings had observed that the Bengals were prepared to match up a defender against the center in larger personnel groupings. They reasoned that fewer people would be needed for the initial surge to be most successful.

O’Connell also had a good explanation for his decision to use tempo on the Vikings’ last drive in Week 3 against the Los Angeles Chargers and his lack of aggression late in the fourth quarter against the Chicago Bears in Week 12. Absence of faith in Dobbs contributed to the former during his four interceptions, and the latter was influenced by preventing the Chargers from making a personnel change. Generally speaking, the fourth quarter of the game sees the Vikings averaging more air yards per attempt (a sign of downfield aggression) than any other quarter.

That’s not to say O’Connell can’t learn from what happened on Saturday. Following the Vikings’ Week 12 home defeat, O’Connell spoke about “fighting that battle” between recklessness and aggression. He acknowledged that the Week 3 defeat was “purely on me trying to be too aggressive in that moment” after the match.

Losses amplify these choices, much like winning papers over issues. Using a backup quarterback reduces the total margin of victory for inaccuracy. even if you’re 7-7 in a season where you feel like you could be 7-7 at your best. Even if a Nick Mullens-led offense ends up with the third most effective down-to-down offensive performance of the week despite two failed conversions on high-probability calls,.